Media Manipulation

Jon Stewart exposes how CNN did a live split screen interview between two hosts, designed to give an impression they are in different locations but both had the same bus appear behind them within half a second – they were 10 metres apart from each other. CNN chose to deceive the public.

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Comments (22)

Firstly – I don’t understand the point of this. I just don’t get it. WHY?

Secondly – Is this all that much different from One News’ frequent live crosses to “The Newsroom” which is about 30 seconds walk from the studio, or on more exciting days when they do a live cross to a reporter standing on the deck outside the staff cafe two floors above the newsroom.

Apparently US news camops refer to these shots as a Dog Lick Live Shot

Should add, I don’t really agree with your conclusions about being “manipulation” or a “shocking expose of their values” – it’s really just bullshit theatrics designed to make their coverage look more dynamic. Exactly the same reason for the pointless live shots above… It’s a style. It is simply asserting that you have the technology to be reporting live from the scene of whatever.

Dean Papa

simonway

From the comments on the original AtlanticWire story:

The Atlantic should be seriously embarrassed by this story. The authors obviously have no experience with TV production. The two on air personalities were both covering the Jodi Arias trial for their own different shows on their own different networks. It was no secret that they were both at the Arias trial. They weren’t trying to pretend they were somewhere they weren’t.

This is how TV production, and press camps in particular, work. There are hundreds of journalists set up in the same general location. Each network, and sometimes each show, has its own little production area, its own crew, its own equipment, its own makeup, its own catering, etc. It’s a lot easier when two hosts want to talk to each other, to just stay in their own area, and use the same equipment that is already set up, with the same audio levels, and the same white balance, etc… and just do a link with a split screen.

Later in the show Ashleigh did a 4-way split screen with another HLN host in the same parking lot, another CNN reporter right across the street, and another in a Phoenix studio. It happens all the time simply because of the logistics of TV production, and not an intent to deceive.

It’s ironic how cable “news” networks are rarely called out when they are actually being deceptive, but they are called deceptive when they are not.

I saw this a few days ago.
TVNZ is guilty of abusing the satellite thing as well. Like when they report on the cost of petrol going up or something, they’ll have a reporter live outside a BP somewhere (doesn’t matter which one, as it doesn’t have any bearing on the actual story).
And she’ll stand there out in the freezing cold to tell us all about petrol prices, when it could have easily been done by the studio reporter.

Time Warner owns Time Magazine, HBO, Warner Bros., and CNN, among many others. The board of directors includes individuals past or presently affiliated with: the Council on Foreign Relations, the IMF, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Warburg Pincus, Phillip Morris, and AMR Corporation, among many others.

…

These types of relationships have continued in the decades since, although perhaps more covertly and quietly than before. For example, it was revealed in 2000 that during the NATO bombing of Kosovo, “several officers from the US Army’s 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Group at Ft. Bragg worked in the news division at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters.” This same Army Psyop outfit had “planted stories in the U.S. media supporting the Reagan Administration’s Central America policies,” which was described by the Miami Herald as a “vast psychological warfare operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in enemy territory.” These Army PSYOP officers also worked at National Public Radio (NPR) at the same time. The US military has, in fact, had a strong relationship with CNN.

Dennis Horne

Is this all that much different from One News’ frequent live crosses to “The Newsroom” which is about 30 seconds walk from the studio, or on more exciting days when they do a live cross to a reporter standing on the deck outside the staff cafe two floors above the newsroom.

Of course it isn’t. But you seem to be assuming that it’s okay when they do it too. It really is not!

This is why CNN is #3 in the ratings and falling. They have no respect for their fast-diminishing audience. People don’t like being treated like they are stupid.

As for folk ragging on Fox – no, Fox has never pulled anything this stupid (they did hire Dick Morris, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish).

You mean the same CNN that reported they’d caught the Boston bomber after the apparent say-so of someone in the know, then had to backtrack during a live report – their own reporters with different stories.

John Stewart, in a comedy routine, called them the “human centipede of news” – eating their own shit.

We’re accustomed to 24 hour news networks thriving on conflict. Generally, though, that conflict is between two outside parties-political opponents, pundits-but CNN’s reporters have discovered that they can remove the middle man and spend hours of programming fighting amongst themselves. They have figured out a way to shit in their own mouths.

In the meantime, it looks like Fox has taken over to become the network that people turned to during the crisis when they wanted the real news. CNN has been rated “less trustworthy” than Fox in a new poll.

It used to be that whenever an important news story broke, cable television viewers would quickly turn to CNN for must-see coverage of what was happening. However, according to a poll conducted regarding the five-day coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, that is definitely no longer the case.

The survey, which was conducted by the liberal Huffington Post website and the international marketing agency YouGov, determined that former titan CNN came in as far less trustworthy than Fox News over which was the most believable cable news channel.

During the poll, which was based on interviews of 1,000 adults last Friday and Saturday, the bad news for CNN began when people were asked how believable the news was from that channel during the Boston bombings. The biggest response was 35 percent stating “I don’t watch CNN.”

Of course, all cable news outlets saw their viewership rise sharply because of their coverage of the bombing and subsequent search for the terrorists behind it.

As a result, 38 percent of the respondents said the channel was “very” or “somewhat” believable, and 21 percent said it was “not very” or “not at all believable.”

Also, MSNBC had no reason to smile since the poll indicated that 42 percent of the people polled “don’t watch” the channel. In addition, the liberal channel fared poorly in the “very” or “somewhat” believable category with 35 percent.

itstricky

“expose” and “shocking” and “values”

Hmmm…. let me guess… this is a TV station you don’t agree with, DPF?

That’s why it’s shocking and not just a cock-up?

And I don’t know anything at all about American politics or supposed leanings of any of the stations (although I know what answer I will get if I Google it). The fact that I don’t have to do this shows how ridiculous the post is.

Please rest the political bull*. This would have been interesting, and funny, as it was. To try to twist it into something else… well I guess it shows some of what you’re about sometimes.